Mike Aitken Bids Farewell to The Scotsman with Fond Memories

As sportswriter, Mike Aitken, wrote on Friday: “One of the unwritten rules of the press box is you don't show emotion, you capture it.”

But to mark his retirement from The Scotsman, after 36 years, Aitken confessed to occasionally breaking the rule.

In Friday's edition of the paper – to coincide with his last day there – he wrote: “The journalist's job is to report and interpret, not to cheer. While I've been pretty faithful to this maxim over the years – apart from Hewitt's winner for Aberdeen, only Archie Gemmill's goal for Scotland in 1978 tested my self-control – it was watching Heart of Midlothian win their first trophy for 35 years which really strained my neutrality.”